Though mobile phones have been prevalent in the marketplace for some time, they have not been widely used in the industries that must monitor movement of users or employees on a route, a journey or a tour through commander or supervisor defined zones, places or locations. For example, security patrol officers move from checkpoint to checkpoint on a tour defined by a commander. Prison guards move through areas of a prison while making “rounds” defined by a supervisor. Police officers move through areas or “beats” of their city as defined by a commander. Delivery trucks move from store to store making deliveries on a route defined by a supervisor or a manager. Military missions move from location to location in the pursuit of accomplishing a mission or a journey defined by a commanding officer. Similarly, shoppers move through isles in a store that can be defined by zones.
With the increase in technological sophistication of wireless devices over time, there has been a rise in the use of these devices. While appearing unrelated at first glance, it turns out most development in the use of wireless devices is part of the development of wireless device technology. Early efforts were principally focused in marketing products to consumers. Marketers have attempted to find a solution in the prior art to target consumers using wireless devices with limited success.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,321,773 to Hines, et al. discloses an area watcher wireless feature with a database of geographic areas triggering the wireless area watcher to display a message upon particular wireless device's entry into or exit from a watched area. A watched area may be defined by a postal code, principality, state or country, or by a particular cell site area. However, the system in Hines relies on the infrastructure of a wireless network service provider to implement the feature and to define the watched areas leading to an expensive system that cannot be customized.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,995,996 to Link, et al. discloses providing target advertisements over wireless network from local advertisers pre-registered to advertise. Local advertisers register to advertise on wireless devices that are in close proximity to the advertiser. As a consumer enters a cell site that is near the location of the local advertiser, the wireless network delivers a message to the wireless device of the consumer that is specified by the local advertiser. However, the system in Link relies on the location and the range of cellular towers leading to an inaccurate location of the wireless device. Further, such reliance on the range of the cellular towers results in fixed areas within which the consumer must be and cannot be customized to suit the local advertiser.
WIPO Patent Publication No. 2010/078616 to Wood, et al. discloses a mobile device managing arrangement for service and product information by a wireless fidelity network through hand-held devices interacting with a precinct database. In Wood, the precinct database stores vendors, products, services, and information for each precinct. A precinct is a predefined region in which a customer with the mobile device can access information about the vendors, products, services within the precinct. The precinct is equipped with proximity short range wireless equipment, in the form of a pad or a gate. In order to access the information from the precinct database, the customer must place the mobile device within the range of the proximity pad or gate to access the information. However, the system in Wood relies on the wireless fidelity network and a cellular network to locate the mobile device leading to an inaccurate location because the range of the wireless fidelity network and the range of the cellular network cannot conform to the shape of the building in which the customer is desired to be located and cannot be customized. Further, the wireless fidelity network for the determination of the location can be compromised through the use of a wireless fidelity network repeater to extend the reach of the network to unauthorized areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,516 to Contractor discloses a location confirmation service for wireless devices. A central processor periodically receives position data from a wireless device via GPS or cellular network as a latitude and longitude point. The central processor compares the latitude and longitude point with a known location point to determine if the wireless device is within a predetermined distance from the known location point. However, the service is limited to comparing points and cannot compare a location of a device to a spatial area.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,864,047 to Aninye et al. discloses a monitoring system that tracks a location of a wireless personal tracking device. The system periodically tracks the location of the wireless personal tracking device using a cellular network or a GPS service. The system compares the location to a predetermined inclusion zone or a predetermined exclusion zone. If the wireless personal tracking device is in the predetermined exclusion zone, the system generates a message and sends the message as a notification. However, the zones in Aninye et al are limited to circular zones, each having a fixed radius and cannot be customized in shape or adapted to the conform to the shape of a structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,104,672 to Mitchell, Jr. et al. discloses a security system including a set of sensors connected to the security system. The security system receives a location of a mobile security device carried by a user via GPS or cellular network, compares the location of the mobile security device with a known location of an activated sensor and determines whether the activated sensor is within a predetermined distance from the mobile security device. If the sensor is within the predetermined distance from the mobile security device, then the activated sensor is graphically displayed on the mobile security device. The user can then respond to the activated sensor. However, the system in Mitchell, Jr. et al. can only determine whether a sensor is within a given radius from the mobile security device and is unable to create customized geographic zones.
The foregoing prior art fails to disclose or suggest a system in which a mobile device can be said to be inside a managed defined space or outside that same managed defined space. All prior art belongs in a class of “proximity systems”. While it is mathematically necessary for a military mission to be “near” the objective or a security officer to be “in the proximity of” a checkpoint or a delivery man to be “near” the retail store, it is not sufficient to be able to say they were there. It is desirable to definitively say the soldier, or security officer or delivery man was inside specific geographic coordinates (the virtual geographic zone set up by the commander or supervisor) and was therefore there.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art example of a “proximity system” is shown. This example demonstrates the insufficiency of the “proximity system”. The prior art proximity systems have several limitations. Building 150 has perimeter 151. Wi-Fi access point 152 is mounted in building 150 and has range 153. One limitation is that coverage of range 153 is indistinct and varies around perimeter 158. Further, some areas are excluded from coverage of range 153. For example, area 157 and coverage area 159 are not covered by range 153 of Wi-Fi access point 152. Further, undesired reception of the Wi-Fi signal occurs. For example, Wi-Fi repeater 154 broadcasts repeater coverage perimeter 155 by receiving signal 160 from Wi-Fi access point 152 and rebroadcasting it in coverage area 159 with coverage perimeter 155. This is a problem because wireless device 156 is able to access Wi-Fi access point 152 through Wi-Fi repeater 154 with coverage range 159, said coverage range 159 being beyond what is intended. Further, range 153 cannot be precisely determined due to the “fuzziness” of range 153, thereby allowing an unintended user of wireless device 156 to access range 153 of Wi-Fi access point 152 by being in coverage range 159 of Wi-Fi repeater 154.
The prior art fails to disclose or suggest a system and method for creating customizable virtual geographic zones to enable supervisors to accurately interact with users. Therefore, there is a need in the prior art for a system and method for creating accurate virtual geographic zones that cannot be compromised to allow a supervisor to inexpensively and accurately interact with users.